The Warden - Book 3

I listened to a wonderful free recording of The Warden by Anthony Trollope via Librivox.  Unlike other books, like The Brothers Karamosov, where there are a number of different readers, this was read by one British man, Nick Whitley, and he did a marvelous job.  It was almost at a professional level.The actual recording sometimes varied a little in loudness but the reader himself did such a good job.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.  I find Anthony Trollope so charming, intelligent, wry and insightful.  He writes beautifully.  All the personalities leap from the book, fully blown, living characters that you recognize and chuckle at. Trollope has fun in this book satiring at Charles Dickens as Mr. Populist Sentiment.  He's got a stuffy, self-important attorney general named Abraham Haphazard.  He even has a very minor character, the father of 12, whose name is Mr. Quiverful.  He doesn't overdo that kind of satire but it is there for just a sprinkling of humor.

The plot gently pokes at overzealous reformers which may do more harm than the actual thing the zealot wants to reform.  And the main character is the lovely, kindly, meek and mild Mr. Harding.  He is the warden of the hospital, like an old age home for poor men who worked in the wool industry.  Mr. Harding lives in the comfortable cottage on the grounds and is in charge of the men living there.  Mr. Bold, a young, well off doctor in the town, who has known Mr. Harding since his childhood and who has fallen in love with Mr. Harding's younger daughter, Eleanor, can't control his reform-minded zeal when he discovers that Hiram's Will, which set up the home for the old men, is not really being followed as intended.  The Anglican Church has allowed, for many decades, the warden to be paid rather comfortably, while very little money goes to the actual old men themselves.  Mr. Harding though, loves being the warden.  He has befriended all the old men.  He treats them generously and with kindness.  By his loving care and sweet temper, he has made it a good home.  But Bold can't see this.  Or rather it is beside the point to him.  The will should be followed to the letter and it is just another example of the corruption in the Church.  He is talked into beginning a lawsuit.  This endangers his relationship with Eleanor and causes all sort of havoc and pain in Mr. Harding's life.  How poor, mild-mannered Mr. Harding handles the predicament he's in is the main plot.

I was listening to Trollope's tongue-in-cheek take down of the Victorian British press, exemplified in the newspaper called The Jupiter in the book, at the same time the whole Covington High School boys brouhaha was going on.  It was amazing how spot on Trollope's assessment of the misuse of power by the press was.  The more things change, the more they stay the same!

I really enjoyed this book.  On to Barchester Towers next!  The same reader, Nick Whitley reads this one too!

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